The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1887-05-25
a cHINEsE ExEcurroNER.
He Shows His Tools and Tells About his
bloody Trade.


Bloody Trade.
A correspondent of the London Pail Nan
Gazette, who has been making tour Of the
city of Canton, in China, writes: During
our meanderings in the city our ears were
assailed with the Chinese synonym of the
Egyptian bakseesh cry, till the caverns of
our brains resounded and echoed with 1t
"Cumshawl cumshaw" yelled immature
possessors of pigtails, and mature possessors
echoed the sound wherever we went. When
the youngsters requests were not complied
with, they, after little invariably changed
their cry to ''FanquaI fanqualn (foreign
devil, foreign devil). We marched into
mandarin's Office to the ac-
compartment of the cumshaw tune.
Here we were shown the instru-
ments whereby bamboo chow chow is given
TO the nadal callosities of the wicked also
ratans and short bludgeons for slapping
the faces of untruthful witnesses, thumb
screws and racks for exacting confessions
(no criminal can be executed according to
the laws of China until he has confessed his
crime) canquls, species of collar which for
largeness and observation-disclosures even out
strip the Washers, and which are rectangu-
lar planes of wood with neck and handholes.
The gloomy, small depository-room of these
torture implements we thought to be fair
representation of what European medieval
chamber of Justice has been
we were next taken in our sedan chairs
through an overerowded busy part of the city
to the execution ground. We found il to be
small inclosed rectangular space about
fifteen yards by fifty, entered by gate. Here
our guide introduced us to three poorly
dressed Cinnamon, whom we noticed gam
bling at fan tan table near the gate ON our
arrival. One, a big, brutish-looking fellow
with villainous cast in one of his eyes was
the head eXecutioner, and the other two, who
We're smallish men, We're his assistants.
Through our guide we told the head execu-
toner that we wished to see the instruments
OF his calling, and thereon he produced a
short, very heavy two-handed sword and a
long knife. The following conversation was
carried on with the executioner through the
medium of our guide;
the block p"
I'VE don't use block. What we do is to
make the prisoners kneel down in two rows
facing one another, and bending their heads
down. Then take the sword, and chop,
chop, one on each side aud the heads fall off
SO on, TIL they're all done, as you'd switch
stick.n
with one blown
Always
what is the knife for p,
For the ling che, or death by many cuts
We tie the culprit who is condemned to this
death to that cross there (pointing 70 two
rough Embarked sticks roughly crossed, and
we commence by cutting off the eyelids,
ears, nose and so on, ending by sticking the
knife into the heart. The cuts vary in num-
Der from eight to hundred and twenty, ac-
cording to the Nervousness of the culprit's
crimes
What class Of criminals are condemned
to the ling chez"
"Parricides, matricides, and women who
have killed and mutilated their husbands
form the Majority
''Do the executions interfere with yourap-
petite and sleep?''
The three executioners grinned sardoni-
cally at this question, so we asked
day?'
II have chopped twenty heads off myself
in two minutes. See that dark-looling place
on the ground over there-that's caused by
the blood of the last batch we had'
What Is done with the bodies2'
THE friends take the bodies away, but
we keep the heads in the crooks over by the
wall there, and when we have large num-
Der which are no longer identiiable, we bury
them. Would you like to see some of the
heads?n
We declined and one Of my companions
began to grow pale and complain of not
feeling well, so we ordered the guide to lead
us away.
"Gentleinen, give twenty cents each, cum
shaw, to the executioners,n said the guide,
which we gladly did to escape from the star
ing of the boss butchers swivel eye and so
ended our interview with these high exectl-
TONERS of the great Chineseampire.